I’m going to be completely honest about my experie...
I’m going to be completely honest about my experience.
Nikia and Heidi were in leadership positions while I was there, and from my experience working with them, I believe they had no real ability to handle the reality of what kids of color at that school are dealing with. I watched students repeatedly say they felt unsupported, unheard, and misunderstood. Not once. Not occasionally. Constantly.
These kids are dealing with real trauma at home. Real gang conflict. Real safety issues with other students they are expected to sit next to in class. If you don’t understand that reality, you cannot help these kids. And from what I saw, Nakia and Heidi did not know how to help them in those situations.
In two months, I helped de-escalate four extremely serious gang conflicts between students. Situations that could have turned into real violence. Situations that ended peacefully and in a healthy direction because someone actually sat with those kids and understood where they were coming from.
And instead of that work being supported, I felt misled about how important that work actually was. I felt dismissed. I felt like I was told one thing during hiring and then watched priorities shift once I was inside the building.
Students already didn’t trust staff. And when leadership doesn’t build real trust, kids stop showing up. They stop engaging. They stop believing school is a safe place. And yes — I believe that connects directly to attendance and graduation outcomes.
I care deeply about those kids. I watched them open up. I watched them feel seen. I watched them start to believe in themselves again.
If you are a parent of a kid of color, I am telling you do NOT send your kids here. They have zero ability to understand how gang conflicts stop kids from going to school, they have zero ability to help them and will lie to you.
Do not assume any school understands your child just because they say the right words. Nikia is racist ass liar, and Heidi at best is clueless to how these things effect graduation rates.
I believe I changed lives for the better while I was there. And I stand on that.
